AUSTIN—The Texas House of Representatives is expected to consider Senate Bill 29 on Monday. SB 29 prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars by local governments to hire lobbyists to advocate against tax reform, bond transparency, and ethics issues and requires greater government disclosure. The bill has received bipartisan support from lawmakers growing frustrated with local governments spending more than $40 million in 2017 on lobbyists to resist property tax relief and other essential reforms.
“Local governments are using tax dollars to lobby for more tax dollars. It’s time to end this practice,” said Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Executive Director Kevin Roberts. “The public is overwhelmingly in support of ending taxpayer-funded lobbying. Recent polling shows that 91 percent of Texans oppose using tax dollars to pay for lobbying, with 80 percent strongly opposed to it.”